WHO Reports Say India Has Highest Number of Tuberculosis Cases: Health Minister

A recent WHO report has ranked India with having the highest number of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world, Health Minister J P Nadda said.

“As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global TB Report, 2015, in the year 2014, 2.2 million cases were estimated in India which is higher than any other country,” the minister said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

However, this high number is because of the large population even though the incidence, prevalence and mortality due to TB in India has been consistently declining over the last 15 years, he said.

India has also achieved the Millennium Development Goal and has halved the TB prevalence and mortality as compared 1990 levels, he said, adding that India ranks 17th in incidence rate among the 22 high-burden countries in the world.

“According to the report, from 2013 to 2015, the estimated proportion of Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB cases in India is not increasing. The proportion of MDR cases is estimated to be in between 1.9-2.6 per cent among new TB cases and between 11-19 per cent among re-treatment cases,” Nadda said.